All the Missing Girls

Megan Miranda's debut adult novel is a suspenseful story of murder, mystery, and the inescapable past, set in a suffocating small North Carolina town that keeps its secrets.

Nicolette Farrell left home ten years ago-the summer after high school-following the unsolved disappearance of her best friend Corinne, and the brutal investigation that followed, exposing the darkest parts of them all. She left behind her boyfriend Tyler, her family, her friends, and her past-promising never to look back. Now she’s engaged to a lawyer from Philadelphia and works as a counselor at a private school, miles and years from the person she used to be.
But ten years, and everything fades.

First comes the call from her brother, Daniel, asking for help with their father-now suffering from dementia and living in a rehab facility-and to help sell their abandoned family home. But it’s really the cryptic note that arrives in the mail from her father the same day that has Nic returning home for the summer-to help, yes, but also to find out what secrets her father has been keeping, and what really happened to Corinne that fateful night.

But things feel off as soon as she arrives home: the broken back lock, the pictures missing from the walls, the feeling that someone has been inside their abandoned house. And then, in a state of semi-lucidity, her father tells Nic that she can’t sell the house, and that he saw Corinne-that he knows what happened. But that’s all the information she can get from him.

A day after Nic’s return, history repeats itself when Annaleise Carter, Tyler’s current girlfriend and Nic’s neighbor, disappears, dredging up Corinne’s case once more. Annaleise was last seen walking into the woods behind Nic’s house, just after midnight. But before she disappeared, Annaleise left a message at the police station, hoping to discuss Corinne’s old case. And ten years earlier, Annaleise had been the alibi for Nic, Tyler, and Daniel.

It’s all coming back, and ten years seems just a moment ago. As Nic’s father always said, time is malleable. The distinction between past and present, just an illusion.
Starting on Day 15, telling the story backward, Nic works to unravel the mysteries of what happened to Annaleise two weeks earlier, and the truth about Corinne, ten years before. As she follows time backward, Nic uncovers the secrets and blackmail that have plagued her family, and what’s left of her friends, for years. She discovers the terrible things people have done to each other, but also the beautiful things they will do for each other. And how close the danger truly lies.

National Indie Bestseller List

New York Times Bestseller List

Extended USA Today Bestseller list

Nominee for Best Mystery & Thriller Goodreads Choice Awards 2016

The Author

Megan Miranda

Megan Miranda studied Biology and Anthropology at M.I.T. where she won awards in bioengineering. She worked in biotechnology for several years before teaching high-school Science. She is the author of a number of novels for young adults and adults, published by Bloomsbury, Crown (Random House) and Simon & Schuster. Her adult debut, ALL THE MISSING GIRLS, was a top title of 2016 and featured on the New York Times and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists for many weeks, as well as the extended USA Today bestseller list. THE PERFECT STRANGER followed in 2017, and THE LAST HOUSE GUEST also hit the NYT bestseller list in 21019. THE GIRL FROM WIDOW HILLS follows in 2020.